Shanghai-Mānoa partnership highlighted in student films

Five Shanghai University student filmmakers participating in the UH Mānoa Academy for Creative Media’s SMART Exchange program will screen their films at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival this Friday, October 22, at 4 p.m. at the Regal Dole Cannery Theatres.

The SMART (Student Media Art) Exchange brings Shanghai University and ACM students together twice annually—in Honolulu and Shanghai—for joint filmmaking and film screenings.

The SMART screening is free and open to the public. It will be followed at 6 p.m. by ACM Night@HIFF, a festival highlight for which tickets are still available at <www.hiff.org>.

Both screenings will feature films that the Mānoa and Shanghai students made together. The SMART Exchange is the only university program featuring U.S.-China student film co-productions.

“A Summer, A Boy, and A Cab,” one of the 4 p.m. viewings, was shot on location in Shanghai in June when ACM student filmmakers screened their films at the Shanghai International Film Festival. “Yuen’s Grocery, Nanakuli,” part of the 6 p.m. screenings, was shot on Oʻahu’s West Coast during last October’s visit by the Shanghai students.

The SMART Exchange and the Filmmaker’s Development Workshop are directed by ACM Assistant Professor Anne Misawa.

Said Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw, “Meeting the talented student filmmakers was a highlight of my recent trip to Shanghai and an impressive Shanghai University. We are very excited about this special collaborative effort spanning our two countries, culminating with their films’ showing at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival.”